Have you ever been part of a work team in which decisions were made quickly, everyone worked for the same goal, products got to market fast, and no one cared about their own ego -- just what was important, what was big?

I have.

I've also experienced the opposite: a place where every initiative was bogged down in red tape while the team waited for decisions to be made elsewhere. To say the least, it was frustrating and time-consuming.

Ultimately, the organization spent most of its energy focused internally and innovation ground to a halt. Sound familiar? I thought so.

When we started Tapad, we decided to take a different tack -- one that eliminated the silos and stifling hierarchy of different departments. We call it the "pod" approach.

We organize pods -- otherwise known as work teams -- into 25 people or fewer. Each pod is self-sufficient, capable of solving a challenge. It contains, at minimum, a product development person, an engineer, a marketing person and a sales person. Collectively, they set their own goals and performance metrics and work to bring their specific product to market.

There is nowhere to hide, no one to blame and no one to wait for. Each pod's goals are visible and measurable, and everyone can see the direct impact of their work on the results.

Some of the pods remain long-term with a fixed focus. Others emerge to create more fluid innovation. Sometimes the innovation pods graduate to longer-term pods.

In all cases, though, each pod can theoretically be lifted out of the larger organization and function as a stand-alone company -- minus the back-end services.

This way of organizing doesn't come without challenges. I'd say it fixes 70 percent of the problems and introduces 30 percent new ones. But the problems it introduces are manageable.

By assuming core processes in factories, labs, hospitals, offices, will machines make people irrelevant or unemployed? Consider this argument that humans partnered with such machines will give rise to efficiency, customer service and innovation.

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